Game wardens: Many hunting violations due to poor judgment and ethics

October 15, 2010

Game wardens: Many hunting violations due to poor judgment and ethics

Green River - After a busy weekend for big game hunters in southwest
Wyoming, wildlife officers with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department are
troubled by the number and type of citations issued to area hunters.

Green River Wildlife Supervisor Steve DeCecco says the department spends
a great deal of time highlighting the more high profile wildlife violation
cases when many of the citations issued resulted from something as simple as
lack of good judgment.

DeCecco, a veteran wildlife officer of nearly 30 years and supervisor of
the region's nine game wardens, says he sees the same hunting violations
each year. DeCecco had his own epiphany this past weekend and says many
violations could have been avoided.

"It is common practice for department personnel to showcase wildlife
violation cases in the media, especially when it involves such violations as
taking a big game animal solely for its antlers, taking a trophy-quality
buck or bull out of season or purposely taking an over limit of game
animals," said DeCecco. "But, more often than not, some violations could
have been avoided if the hunter just took his/her time, assessed the entire
scenario, considered his/her own physical limitations and exercised good
judgment."

This past weekend an elk hunter was cited near La Barge Creek for killing
a bull elk instead of a cow elk.

"The hunter had a permit for a cow elk only," DeCecco said. "The first
thing he did wrong was shooting from a public road. It was late in the day
and because the cloud cover was heavy, the lighting was poor. Also, the man
recently had eye surgery. All of these limitations and conditions combined
to make for a poor decision on his part to shoot at the elk herd several
hundred yards away on the hillside above the road. If he had just waited for
better light and shot in the range he was more proficient at, this violation
would have been avoided."

In a separate big game hunting violation game wardens from Kemmerer and
Cokeville cited a Green River man for killing two deer on one deer license.

"This is another case of poor judgment in which a hunter shot two deer,"
said DeCecco. "The man shot the first deer and he did not properly follow
that deer once he fired the shot. He then shot at a deer he thought was the
deer he first shot and it was not the first deer, but a second deer. Rather
than field dress both of the deer and go find a game warden to report the
mistake to, the man chose to only field dress the bigger deer and take the
back straps off the second, smaller deer and leave the rest of the deer to
rot. The man showed lack of good judgment and good ethics in this case.
Fortunately, there were concerned, ethical hunters watching the whole
incident unfold and reported the incident to game wardens patrolling the
area."

Green River Game Warden Dustin Kirsch and Evanston Game Warden Brian
Baker expressed their concern over the increase of hunters driving off-road
to retrieve game animals.

"There are specific ranch rules which apply to each HMA," Baker added.
"Many hunters do not understand that by breaking these rules they are
jeopardizing their future access to these private lands."

HMAs are parcels of land where the department facilitates management of
hunters for access to hunt. The area may be solely private lands or a
combination of private, state trust land and federal land within ranch
boundaries. All hunters who wish to hunt these access areas must obtain a
printed permission slip. The hunter pays no fee for receiving permission for
access for specific times only and they must abide by ranch rules.

National forests have regulations that restrict four wheeler use to
established roads. If there is a road closure sign, that also pertains to
ATVs or four wheelers. Four wheeler use is generally allowed off road for
restricted distances on most BLM land. However, the BLM strongly recommends
you restrict use to established roads or two-tracks. If you are on private
lands, four-wheeler use is totally up to the landowner. It is a good idea to
check with the local forest service or BLM office for specific regulations.

Green River Warden Duane Kerr says he had at least three instances of
hunters killing yearling buck pronghorn on doe licenses because hunters did
not take their time to be sure of their target before pulling the trigger.

"Doe (female) pronghorn have horns just like the buck (male) pronghorn
that is why it is critical that pronghorn hunters look for the black cheek
patch on the male pronghorn when hunting for the bucks," said Kerr. Kerr
also wrote four citations to hunters for hunting without conservation
stamps, several citations to hunters hunting in the wrong area or portion of
area and at least six hunters not being able to show proof of hunter
education.

"A large percentage of these violations demonstrate that many hunters
still don't bother to read and understand the rules they need to know for
what and where they are hunting," Kerr said. "I have noticed over the last
several years that the use of good maps by a hunter is rare and even then
some folks with good maps have no idea where they are or how to read the
map."

Mountain View Game Warden Daniel Beach says he is seeing more cases in
which people are shooting game for other people, commonly called party
hunting. Party hunting is illegal in Wyoming.

"I have cases where adults shoot game for other people, like their
children, elderly parent or wives, and that is illegal," Beach said. "I have
had cases where I am told the licensed person has killed the elk or deer,
but they have 'already gone back to town' and they are not in camp for me to
make sure they truly.

Fair Use Notice: This document may contain
copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized
by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit,
educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted
material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law).
If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your
own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.